The second floor of the gymnasium. This is our usual place. Class is currently in session, but of course we weren't attending. Here is where Shimamura and I became friends. We would talk about our favorite TV shows and about cooking, and sometimes we would even play table tennis.
We raised such a friendship. But sometime I would have my head against a wall and breath sigh shortly. I wonder what this feeling is.
Yesterday, I had a dream where Shimamura and I kissed.
I'm not particularly like that. Shimamura is certainly different but, just to make sure, I'm not like that. However listening to how Shimamura talk about friends, I want her to think of me first.
However that's all.

Shimamura and the schoolgirl that was me, our ordinary days would pass like that.
Until the day when our relationship changed a little.

Why:

There are too many series that tease yuri but don't commit anything. I want a yuri LN! Give me full flirting. Don't just tease me with female protagonists that don't actually feel anything or all that. As such, I'm requesting Adachi to Shimamura. It's a SoL series about two girls slowing growing closer to each other. From what I can tell, it is a romance series. (At least I hope so.) From the three scanlated manga chapters, it's pretty nice with interesting characters, cute bits of shyness, and so on. So yea, I want some Yuri!

Seven Seas got various type of LGBT series.
From what I read, Kase-san and… is really sweet and fluffy.

But Now Loading! And Hungry for you look like fluffy reads too.

But I'm trying to say is—the audience.
JNC audience doesn't have a lot of LGBT, romcom, horror and serious reads followers.
And—you can already notice this in number of votes here.

Unlike Seven Seas who already has audience interested in Yuri.

Tbh, I think the reason why older and more serious series ain't doing well for JNC, while it seems doing well for Seven Seas (e.g. Kokoro Connect Vs Toradora) — is lack of interested audience among JNC followers.

At some point, Seven Seas didn't have that audience either though. They got them over time.

There's an argument to be made that JNC hasn't attempted any realistic RomCom yet (unless I'm forgetting something). Everything that takes place in the real world has been fantasy / scifi tinged. So we don't fully know what the audience is for that here. I believe it was hinted at on here or Curiosity Cat that those real life titles aren't particularly hot sellers in the industry, but lately I've noticed we've gotten a few more of them (Toradora, A Sister is All You Need), so the two other industry leading light novel companies are trying again slowly.

I know we're not the Netflix of LN, but we still have a subscription model here and a customer base; the Netflix model says you take on less popular series in different genre that helps retain diverse audience and bring in more eyes, not just drown the base in one popular genre ad nauseum. I think taking heavy losses would be stupid obviously, but one license attempt of something short you would hope wouldn't be crippling. It's clear they've experimented in the past and recent history with this strategy (Mari Okada one volume biography; those Haiakawa Shobo one volume SciFi; shorter 1-4 volume horror licenses).

I've noticed we've gotten a few more of them (Toradora, A Sister is All You Need), so the two other industry leading light novel companies are trying again slowly.

Toradora has name recognition due to a popular anime adaptation. And the manga sold well for SSE, so it only made sense they would get the source novels.

ImoSae has recognition due to a recent anime (came out 1 year ago so it's still fresh in everyone's memory). Yen announced their license three months before the anime even aired, so I'm pretty sure a lot of the people buying it have seen the adaptation.

Sam even said on Curious Cat that Kokoro Connect would be faring better had it been licensed 5 years ago...

I mean I don’t have concrete numbers for Toradora from Seven Seas but it’s amazon ranking is low and the number of reviews are also low.

So i don’t think it is doing that well

Looking at it quickly, looks like it's doing ok for a split digital and physical release (53585 on the Best Seller ranking for the physical version of 2 that released in August). Monogatari is about 10,000 spots ahead of it on its June release.... Which, I honestly don't know what the difference is sales wise between those spots. By comparison, A Sister is All You Need V2, which released in September is at 78726 (that one did not get a digital release to cannabalize sales). Its first volume is at 261496... So those rankings go down over time, they are sales period rankings.

I wish the Amazon rankings were more static, not "Best Seller for a time period" like this appears. Is there a way to sort the light novels by all time performance?

At some point, Seven Seas didn't have that audience either though. They got them over time.
There's an argument to be made that JNC hasn't attempted any realistic RomCom yet (unless I'm forgetting something). Everything that takes place in the real world has been fantasy / scifi tinged. So we don't fully know what the audience is for that here. I believe it was hinted at on here or Curiosity Cat that those real life titles aren't particularly hot sellers in the industry, but lately I've noticed we've gotten a few more of them (Toradora, A Sister is All You Need), so the two other industry leading light novel companies are trying again slowly.

Firstly, not just 'cause you have certain a title, this audience will just flock to you.
You need to make yourself noticeable to them.
I'll tell you something, I, myself, was pretty dismissive of JNC and didn't care about their announcements.
Like I only cared about Grimgar and Seven Seas was printing that (and I prefer print copies if that's not already known) and didn't only start to care about JNC announcements till when, by chance, I heard it got Outbreak Company from Justus.
JNC's bread and butter has always been Isekai and light fantasy—genres don't exactly have that many titles that drew my attention.
So, I didn't even know when they got title I really love till I saw it on Justus' channel but Justus ain't followed by the whole community either.

Like a lot of my friends didn't even know about JNC, when I told them that Kokoro Connect was finally licensed (but they decided to wait for physical copies that looks like they ain't coming—which is similar situation to people who replied to Seven Seas' tweet about Kokoro Connect's license).
Look at JNC twitter account or reddit of Kokoro Connect, you will find people who never heard of JNC as well.

Why am I saying this?
Basically—to support the less-popular type of series more, buying them ain't enough. (Like, ofc, you will buy it if you are a fan) However, we need to try and spread the word more away from JNC audience. (Even if they ain't LN reader as long as they fit audience criteria—I even got a friend who ain't into anime, into NisiOisiN)

Secondly, A Sister is All You Need is different situation from Toradora and Kokoro Connect (and Oregairu is a whole new situation too)
Also, it's not like Yen Press were only doing Isekai and fantasy and initial line-up of Seven Seas didn't share anything with JNC's audience.
Boogiepop (Dark Fantasy, Mystery, old series), Perfect Blue (Psychological horror), Toradora (Romcom), I want to eat your pancreas (Romance, Tragedy) and True Tenchi Muyo! (SciFi, Old Series).
Also, note that Boogiepop came back after success of the initial digital re-release and anime announcement.

Toradora has name recognition due to a popular anime adaptation. And the manga sold well for SSE, so it only made sense they would get the source novels.

This would apply to the not-doing-so-well-even-though-it's-was-announced-on-Seven-seas-twitter Kokoro Connect as well.

Sam even said on Curious Cat that Kokoro Connect would be faring better had it been licensed 5 years ago...

Also, the whole anime thing is weird when a lot of JNC's top selling titles didn't have an anime at first (or still don't have an anime) like "How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom".
There is something more than the whole anime thing affecting the sales and a lot of most voted suggestions also don't have anime but they all can be categorized into the same 2 or 3 types.

Again, physical probably cannabalizing Toradora's digital sales, so tough to tell anything by this (I should have paid more attention to the seller rankings with "Didn't I Say to Make My Abilities Average for a SS digital first release).

I'm actually surprised Toradora is doing ok with the fact that its anime is old, and the manga is also further ahead. Kokoro Connect I feel like has an unusual audience going against it too (more of a cult anime classic? Doesn't play to Shounen fans? The four guys on the LN podcast with me for the JNC Anime Expo announcements at least hadn't read or watched anything; they were interested in the setup though).

I try not to get too caught up in sales stuff. Just has a tendency to make me upset; I never enter Video Game NPD sales threads. I just say "throw us a bone" every once in a while license wise (I feel like we got quite a few bones recently with those Hayakawa releases and Kokoro Connect, so I'm good for a little while). A short Yuri title would be an interesting bone to have thrown our way. xD

@terrence
Tbh, I want Kokoro Connect to be printed as well!
I want to have it on my shelf!
Also, Haikasoru don't play on the same ground.
They are Sci-Fi imprint and publish both light novel and general literature (They have ties with JLPP as well)

@terrence
Tbh, I want Kokoro Connect to be printed as well!
I want to have it on my shelf!
Also, Haikasoru don't play on the same ground.
They are Sci-Fi imprint and publish both light novel and general literature (They have ties with JLPP as well)

This would apply to the not-doing-so-well-even-though-it's-was-announced-on-Seven-seas-twitter Kokoro Connect as well.

I have some severe doubts that Kokoro Connect ever reached the level of acclaim and popularity that Toradora did...
After the season ended I didn't see anyone talking about KC, whereas Toradora is referenced to this day.

Also, the whole anime thing is weird when a lot of JNC's top selling titles didn't have an anime at first (or still don't have an anime) like "How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom".

Which kinda speaks to Realist's level of appeal IMO. Also, since isekai is what's currently over-saturating the market, it was easier for it to find some footing.

There is something more than the whole anime thing affecting the sales

I'm not saying it's the only factor. I just meant that an anime definitely helps spread awareness. And more awareness leads to more potential buyers.

I'm actually surprised Toradora is doing ok with the fact that its anime is old, and the manga is also further ahead.

The fact that the series is doing OK, despite an old anime, is telling of just how much of an impact it left in the fandom. How well-received a particular work is helps a lot with keeping it relevant.
For example, Death Note and Fullmetal Alchemist are still popular to this day. Now, Toradora may not be quite at their level, but it certainly has a lot more name recognition than Kokoro Connect...